But it wasn’t always that way. When Parcells became coach of the Dallas Cowboys in 2003, he cast a skeptical eye at Nguyen, believing the former Rockport-Fulton and Texas A&M star was too small to be an effective, starting NFL linebacker.

Naturally, Nguyen had his suspicions about Parcells as well. But it didn’t take long for him to realize the two-time Super Bowl champ was different from any coach he’d ever had.

“I learned more football in four years being around Bill Parcells than I did in the previous 15 that I played,” said Nguyen, who played for Dallas from 1999 until injuries forced him to retire in March 2006.

Nguyen had some of his best seasons under Parcells, leading the team in tackles in 2003-2004.

On Saturday, Parcells will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His lengthy career included four seasons in Dallas, where he turned the Cowboys into winners after three straight 5-11 seasons.

“We weren’t a good team (when Parcells arrived in 2003), but we believed in him and feared him,” said Nguyen, who remains friends with Parcells, who has twice appeared on the sports talk show Nguyen co-hosts on San Antonio’s KZDC-AM.

In addition to admiring Parcells’ knowledge, Nguyen marveled at his ability to connect with players.

“He was unique in that he could relate to everybody,” said Nguyen, the NFL’s first Vietnamese-American standout. “It didn’t matter if you grew up in a single-parent home, or with no parents or what your nationality was.”
Tony Romo had similar memories. The quarterback became a starter in 2006 after Parcells benched veteran Drew Bledsoe.

“Bill had a big influence on me,” Romo said. “He taught me a lot about the game. He had great wisdom in a lot of areas. It wasn’t just about how to manage the team. It was about people. It was his ability to know little things you might be thinking. He’s pretty gifted at that.”

“We are taught to lift weights with a two-minute rest between sets,” Nguyen said. “Bill would come in and talk to you — ‘How you doing? How’s the family?’ — all the time knowing you have only two minutes to talk. So it came down to: Are you going to sit there and B.S. with him or you going to work?

“It was his way of finding out if he could trust you. He was thinking, ‘If I can’t trust this player to be committed to doing this, lifting weights, how am I going to trust him when it’s fourth and one?’ So when he came in, I’d avoid him. There were others that would be like, ‘Hey, coach, how you doing?’ They were his best friends. But those were the ones he learned he couldn’t trust.”